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Winston Churchill’s 150th birthday [reading list]

Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire on 30th November 1874. His exploits as Prime Minister during the Second World War left an indelible mark on history. To celebrate 150 years since his birth, we have collated the latest research on Oxford Academic to read more about Churchill’s life.  Whether you’re a history enthusiast or a curious reader, this collection offers a deep dive into the life and times of a figure who shaped the modern world.

Cover of Blue Jerusalem: British Conservativism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War by Kit Kowol

1. Blue Jerusalem: British Conservativism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War by Kit Kowol

This radical re-interpretation of British history and British Conservatism between 1939 and 1945 reveals the bold, at times utopian, plans British Conservatives drew up for Britain and the post-war world. From proposals for world government to a more united Empire via dreams of a new Christian elite and a move back to the land, this book reveals how Conservatives were every bit as imaginative and courageous as Labour and their left-wing opponents. A study of political thinking as well as political manoeuvre, it goes beyond an examination of the usual suspects—Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, etc.—to reveal a hitherto lost world of British Conservatism and a set of forgotten futures that continue to shape our world.

Read Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War

Cover of The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and the History They Made by Michael Mandelbaum

2. “Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill” in The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and the History They Made by Michael Mandelbaum

After a long and prominent career in the British parliament and membership in several British cabinets, Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940 as World War II was going badly for Britain. He rallied the country with eloquence, expressing a determination not to give in to Nazi Germany but rather to fight to the end. He also set about cultivating a relationship with the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, with an eye to securing American assistance and ultimately American participation in the war against Germany.

Read “Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

The Big Three Allies and the European Resistance: Intelligence, Politics, and the Origins of the Cold War, 1939-1945 by Tommaso Piffer

3. “Civil War and Liberation in the Balkans: 1944–1945” in The Big Three Allies and the European Resistance: Intelligence, Politics, and the Origins of the Cold War, 1939-1945 by Tommaso Piffer

In Yugoslavia, where Churchill had apparently imposed a clear-cut choice in December 1943, British policy was the subject of lengthy discussions. The problem here was what to do with Mihailović. The Soviets had scored an important point when Churchill shifted British support from Mihailović to Tito, but there too the game was far from over. Churchill asserted that Mihailović should be dismissed immediately and all British missions to the Chetniks withdrawn. Eden, on the other hand, thought it would have been sensible to achieve an agreement with Tito before throwing Mihailović overboard. Churchill had, in essence, failed to understand who Tito really was and what he wanted.

Read “Civil War and Liberation in the Balkans: 1944-1945

Cover of Rum, Sodomy, Prayers, and the Lash Revisited: Winston Churchill and Social Reform in the Royal Navy, 1900-1915 by Matthew S. Seligmann

4. Rum, Sodomy, Prayers, and the Lash Revisited: Winston Churchill and Social Reform in the Royal Navy, 1900-1915 by Matthew S. Seligmann

“Naval tradition? Naval tradition? Monstrous. Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash.” When Winston Churchill was in charge of the Royal Navy from October 1911 to May 1915 he sought to make drastic reforms, coming into conflict with the naval officers over the traditions of the Royal Navy. Churchill was not just a major architect of welfare reform as President of the Board of Trade and as Home Secretary, but he also continued to push a radical social agenda while running the Navy.

Read Rum, Sodomy, Prayers, and the Lash Revisited: Winston Churchill and Social Reform in the Royal Navy, 1900-1915

The Churchill Myths by Steven Fielding, Bill Schwarz, Richard Toye

5. The Churchill Myths by Steven Fielding, Bill Schwarz, Richard Toye

This is not yet another biography of Winston Churchill. It is instead an innovative study of how and why we think what we do about the figure we call ‘Winston Churchill’—and how generations of politicians, historians, and dramatists have manipulated this figure for their own ends. It is a book for those interested in ‘Churchill’ and how this figure has been put to use—as well as Britain’s past, present, and future.

Read The Churchill Myths

Cover of Churchill’s American Arsenal by Larrie D. Ferreiro

6. Churchill’s American Arsenal by Larrie D. Ferreiro

The idea of a “special relationship” between Britain and the United States was articulated by Churchill after World War Two had ended, but for most of its history, the relations between the two nations were often as distrustful as they were friendly. This book tells the story of how a British and American scientific and technological partnership, one that started not long after Britain had lost its ally France and stood alone against Nazi Germany, developed these innovations, which could not be imagined before the conflict began, on an industrial scale.

Read Churchill’s American Arsenal

Cover of The War Lords and the Gallipoli Disaster: How Globalized Trade Led Britain to Its Worst Defeat of the First World War by Nicholas A Lambert

7. “The Military and Diplomatic Strands” in The War Lords and the Gallipoli Disaster: How Globalized Trade Led Britain to Its Worst Defeat of the First World War by Nicholas A Lambert

As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, Churchill oversaw the Gallipoli campaign. As the Western Front developed into a stalemate, Prime Minister Asquith announced a full review of strategic policy to be held during the first week of January 1915. There were major disagreements over strategy (within both army and navy high commands) and much lobbying ensued, with Churchill front and centre of the debates.

Read “The Military and Diplomatic Strands

Cover of Storms over the Balkans by Alfred J Rieber

8. “Churchill” in Storms over the Balkans by Alfred J Rieber

Churchill pursued two traditional lines of British foreign policy. He sought to maintain British control over the Mediterranean as the vital connection with its imperial holdings in North Africa, the Middle and Far East. Equally, he opposed Hitler’s expansion as a threat to the balance of power on the continent. He negotiated with Stalin to secure British preponderance in Greece and supported Tito’s Partisans as the most effective resistance in Yugoslavia against the Axis.

Read “Churchill

Cover of Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman by Michael Llewellyn-Smith

9. “Lloyd George, Churchill and Venizelos” in Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman by Michael Llewellyn-Smith

Eleftherios Venizelos pursued the question of naval cooperation with Churchill in further talks, during which the British view of Greece’s naval role became clearer—that they should leave the heavy lifting to the British and view themselves as a light-armed gendarme of the Aegean. While the British fleet, with its great capital ships operating out of Argostoli and Malta, would contain the Austrians and Italians in the Adriatic, the Greeks, with small, rapid craft, would police the eastern Mediterranean and the islands. 

Read “Lloyd George, Churchill and Venizelos

Cover of Winston Churchill: A Life in the News by Richard Toye

10. Winston Churchill: A Life in the News by Richard Toye

Before Winston Churchill made history, he made news. To a great extent, the news made him too. If it was his own efforts that made him a hero, it was the media that made him a celebrity—and it has been considerably responsible for perpetuating his memory and shaping his reputation in the years since his death.

Buy Winston Churchill: A Life in the News

Featured image by Smith (War Office official photographer), Imperial War Museum via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Recent Comments

  1. C Bauer

    Having read more about this man than any other politician past or present, I still return to the thought that we should be grateful he was there at that pivotal moment in 1939 and remained there for six merciless years facing an implacable, ruthless, and deluded enemy. That simply fact can never be dismissed or even minimized.

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